April Sketch Outing

The forecast was "cloudy with rain later", but we had beautiful sunshine for this month's outing in Old Town Gardens.  The bandstand was surrounded with a glorious display of white magnolias and there were plenty of seats from which to work.  The nearby kiosk kept us supplied with hot drinks, "bacon butties" or sweet snacks - a perfect sketching location.

I worked in the Hahnemuhle grey sketchbook for my attempt at the bandstand, using a black (nearly dry) Pentel brush pen, watercolour markers in blue and burnt sienna with a light touch of watercolour. Later at home, I did some more work on it, adding white highlights with gel pen and gouache.

The Bandstand, Old Town Gardens

I only managed to complete the kiosk on site, the background was added later from my photograph.

The Kiosk, Old Town Gardens
Pen and wash on watercolour paper

A couple of us finished off the day by visiting Swindon Museum and Art Gallery to view an exhibition of paintings donated in the mid-1900's by a local landowner - these included works by Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson, LS Lowry and Henry Moore.